Among the players who had retired in the recent past, if there was one player who the world community would like to see return to the game, who will it be? Who was that one player almost everyone thought had retired a few years too early? It will be, the one and only, the multi-talented player, A B de Villiers. His exploits on the cricket field is legendary. Let me write about A B de Villiers return and Padikkal about whom Lara has high opinion.
Shocking decision
Everyone were absolutely shocked when AB announced that he was retiring. Here was a player at the height of his abilities announced his retirement. Just a few months before, he had played some memorable innings that actually allowed South Africa to win their first test series against Australia in South Africa from the time they were readmitted. If not for AB’s runs in that series, Australia would have won that series. Such was his impact. Prior to that, he had complained pressure and being over played. I do have some strong opinions about that because, a Kohli or Dhoni or Tendulkar usually plays more number of games and the expectation of their shoulders is something none of the players from other countries will even experience.
However, de Villiers felt that he was being made to play lot more games than he would like. Now, these were all in the past and let me know talk about it any further.
Absolutely, no one expected de Villiers to retire. Everyone believed that Cricket South Africa and de Villiers will be able to come to an understanding. Afterall, South Africa had recently lost the services of Kallis, Smith, Steyn and Amla. This left the team extremely weak and then just cannot afford to lose de Villiers as well because he had lot of cricket left in him. However, the board wasn’t able to come to an understanding and as a result de Villiers retired.
South Africa have struggled
In the three years since his retirement, South Africa have experienced what it meant to have lost de Villiers. They have lost more than 70% of their games. This is not to say that de Villiers would have magically transformed that 70% into winning games but he would have certainly ensured that that percentage is well below the 40% mark. Now, de Villiers has expressed his desire to play for South Africa again.
Having seen his exploits so far in the ongoing IPL, he is in great touch and South Africa will stand to gain. However, it is not clear whether they will only play in T20 or is he open to playing in all the forms? If it is the latter, cricket will be blessed. The world for a few more years can see the brilliance of de Villiers. If it is the former, South Africa will stand a good chance at this year’s T20 World Cup.
“It will be fantastic to play for South Africa again, I will be speaking with Boucher late end of IPL – last year, he asked me whether I am interested and I said ‘absolutely’,” AB de Villiers.
Let us hope that Boucher is able to convince de Villiers and let us hope to see the magician in action soon at the international stage.
Padikkal has impressed Brian Lara
If someone like Brian Lara says nice things about a player, that player ought to be if not special, atleast good. Now, Lara is impressed with the quality shown by Devdutt Padikkal. He is from Karnataka and is young with loads of time on his side. Padikkal caught everyone’s eye with his dazzling strokeplay in the 2021 edition of the IPL. He played in a fashion like he was born to play the game. Like a duck to the pond. It some games, he even managed to overshadow Virat Kohli and that speaks a lot about his talent.
“He’s (Padikkal) such a great talent. Last year he got a couple of fifties, he batted well, he supported Virat Kohli very well. What I want to see in 2021 IPL is for him to go on and get a few man of the matches and get a couple of triple figures under his belt. Such a great little player! A few little things to iron out. I hope he did that in the break and comes back really storming hard for this IPL.”
Such words and it shows how far has Padikkal come. If he manages to fulfil his talent, it will be great news for India. Being a left handed opener, he will add a great bit of variety at the top of the order. This lad sure has talent but is he good enough to capitalise on that? Only hard work and dedication will help him in achieving great heights.
Let us for the sake of Indian cricket hope that he justifies Lara and becomes an excellent batsman in the future. With talented youngsters like Shubnam Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna & Tyagi, Indian cricket looks to be in the healthy hands of these players.
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